Winter Riding

It’s no doubt that when you live far enough north, November, December, and so on until March or April is a going to be tough. The weather is cold and the sun barely shines. As a cyclist, it gets even tougher as you try to stay motivated to train or even just get outside to enjoy the sport you love. This season has been especially cold and the recent really cold spell has really tested me. It got me thinking about what I’ve done this year to ride outside and to stay motivated. I’m not trying to complain, ok maybe a little bit, but it’s also just enjoyable to reflect and understand what you’ve done to cope with the conditions.

The summer season begins to end when the days get noticeably shorter and the temps begin forcing you to wear long sleeves and knee warmers. I genuinely look forward to this time of year. It’s the time of year when you start to get cozy. You wear pants and long sleeve shirts and you start to bundle up at night. The all-day rides begin to ends with a refreshing crisp chill. It wakes you up as the sun begins to set. It’s autumn and its beautiful.

I almost forget that winter is right around the corner I enjoy it so much. I forget until that first ride where instead of a refreshing end, you get smacked across the face by a cold to the bone wind and have to thaw out your fingers and toes. It’s the first ride when you are reminded just how cold it can get. But as the days go on your body adapts; you keep riding anyways because it’s not that cold and you’re a man right? Maybe so. You toughen up and learn to ride even when the temp dips below freezing. It’s cold, but it’s not dangerous. For winter in southern Wisconsin, the temperature seems to stop dropping around this point, at least drastically. But it still moves around from time to time. It’s at this point that local CX ends and some call it a year.

The final level is when you’ve learned to deal with below freezing and then the temperature drops even more. Everyone has a point where they won’t ride outside. For me, it’s 15 degrees F where I start to really think about it, look at the wind and try to find a reason to ride the trainer. For those of us trying to train for January racing, it can be hell or it can a mountain. If you let it, it will derail training. If you conquer it, it’s an extra boost.

Racing is another story as I’ve tried to decide if I would have towed the line in Bend this year had I been there. I’ve thought of myself as a tough guy, and when I heard about the weather in Bend for the Deschutes Brewery race in my peripheral, I thought to myself that everyone was blowing it out of proportion. I’m from Wisconsin and I ride in the cold all the time. But after hear it was near zero, and then riding in similar conditions, I don’t know if I’d race. But I digress.

So how does one beat it, what have learned so far this winter and what did I already know that I can now put into comprehensible words thanks to my fancy new college education? One things for sure, there are probably still spelling and grammar mistakes in this post (it took me 3 tries to spell grammar right).

·         We are slaves to physics. Just like your car might not want to start in the cold, same with your body. Common sense always trumps the hardman cyclist wearing a thin leg warmer and his fancy technical base layer. First off, if you’re trying to stay warm, don’t throw away heat. Cover your legs. They will get warm from working but if they are not covered they will also loose heat faster than your cold hands. Keep that heat and your body will send it where it’s needed like your freezing hands or toes. Layer your base layers such that they intertwine. This will keep air from cutting through to your skin. Cover you head. I’ve got an old helmet that I taped over the vents (Thanks Matter for the idea, as well as the million other people who’ve done it). It freaking works. But in the end, there is no one solution. You’ve got to cover all your bases because the cracks are where the heat goes out and the cold comes in.

·         Block the wind. This to some effect goes along with my first point, but its important. I’ll often wear a wind vest on cold race days under my skinsuit. When I’m training, I’ll have a wind jacket on. Wear booties and a good pair of wind blocking gloves. Make sure it’s your outer layer, you’re trying to create a layer of warm air between you and the outside.

·         Layer. This one comes from my dad. It was always a million layers with my dad. Sometimes he’d go overboard but you can always take off clothing. He sometimes had to stop to take a layer off, but he was always warm and happy. I was always cold and miserable. At least until I learned tho dress right.

·         A cool little piece of gear I use are cotton socks. Cut a hole in the bottom for the cleat (a small one, it will stretch) and you can use them as wind booties in the summer or fall. Then in the winter they can go over the shoe but under your wind blocking booties for an extra layer when it’s stupid cold out.

·         Put on some oil. For races some people use Embrocation. I’ve used it, it works for racing but its not always the way to go for training. So you can use plain baby oil to create a layer on top of your skin. It keeps you slightly warmer, helps protect against dry skin, and isn’t painful on the reheat, because there is no reheat.

But sometimes it’s just too freaking cold to ride outside. Then what? If I’m on the fence, or its almost too cold, look at it like a challenge. Tell yourself you need to learn how to handle it. Use it as a learning experience. Even over do it if you have to. If its just too cold, it’s trainer time.

The best thing for riding trainers is to find a friend. Having someone  to talk to make a world of difference. Combine that with interval riding. Riding a trainer is boring. So doing intervals splits up the time into manageable chunks. Instead of riding for 2 hours, you’re watching a video for 20 minutes while you warm up. Then you’re focusing on pushing yourself for the next hour doing threshold work. Having a friend there make this even easier because you can wimp out in front of a buddy. Best of all, interval training is a good way to get a ton of benefit out of a short time period, so instead of riding for 3 hours, you can ride for 90 minutes. Combine all these things by joining a spin class. I’ve also found that having a good trainer makes it easier too. When you can barely find a reason to ride, having trouble getting your bike set up can turn into a missed workout.

These general ideas have helped me so far get through a tough block of training before CX nats. We’ll see how much more I can do after nats and when spring starts up. We’ll see how much of these tips I remember. Good thing I wrote them down.

Thanks for reading.

If you’re looking for a good winter workout, check out SpeedCycling in Madison

I work PowerTap and Cycleops, so I’m biased. But CycleOps trainers are hands down the best.

If you need gloves, booties, or other winter clothing, Bontrager has you covered. Go to Emery’s and pick them up and tell them Joe sent you from Team Wisconsin, you’ll get the royal treatment.